Mainframe (and other personal projects discussion)

[The G-Meister]

I've been talking about my game for a while now, and I've finally got to a somewhat satisfactory point where I've got the majority of the developer tools working, so I can start building the game. In celebration, I decided to do a little bit of art:



If I feel like it, I might publish the working software here once the tools are done. Would anyone like that, or would it be a thing that amuses you for five minutes, then you get bored?

 

[MrChocodemon]

I would be interested.

 

[The G-Meister]

Aight, that's nice to know. Once I've got a line tool and rectangular fill tool going (won't take long) I'll change a couple things around to make it a little more draw friendly, possibly attempting to add saving and loading features as well.

 

[The G-Meister]

Here we go. Finally got stuff working to a moderately satisfactory standard. To try the software out, download the .zip file, right click on it, select "Extract all" and run "LettArt.html" in a browser of your choice.

There's loads of changes I have planned, but feel free to give feedback and suggestions! To celebrate, I attempted a drawing of the Vault Boy from the Fallout series. Turned out pretty good, but his fingers are a little mushed, and he's squashed vertically compared to the image I was drawing him from. Also, yes you can shade with letters (well, somewhat)

 

[res7less]

Kinda doesn't work for me I'm using Firefox.

 

[The G-Meister]

I figured there might be some cross browser differences Sadly I'm not an expert coder. I'll download Firefox and see what the issue is, and I'll try it on Edge to be safe. Once it's working I'll release a hotfix.

 

[The G-Meister]

Wow, these errors are pretty critical, it's gonna take me a short while to fix them. In case you're buzzing to use it right this instant it works fine (and very quickly) on chrome. On Edge stuff happens slowly, especially the larger commands. I should hopefully have it working by early next week.

I'd eventually like to learn Java and export it to that, then I don't have to worry about the operating system being used either.

 

[res7less]

Yeah, making content for multiple platforms is annoying. Just because it works on one, it doesn't mean it has to work on others. Every platform has its own little peculiarities. I learned that when I made something that perfectly worked on Android - was never able to port it to iOS.

 

[KoBeWi]

Java is a good choice, because pretty everyone has it installed and it's available for every system. If you use standard library only, you shouldn't have problems with porting.
At least theoretically. I managed to write a Java code that works on Windows, but doesn't start on Linux.

 

[The G-Meister]

@res7less, here we go. A "Firefox Hotfix" (I sound far too professional ._.) Turns out I was looking at some outdated fixes and it was much simpler than I thought There may still be the occasional error in the console, but nothing game-breaking (even though it's not really a game).

Again, right click and select "Extract All" from the context menu (or your operating system's equivalent).

 

[res7less]

Cool, it works now! And to celebrate that, here is an absolutely horrifying smiley:



Hint: I suck at drawing.

 

[The G-Meister]

You don't need to be good at drawing to come up with some good looking stuff - that's the beauty of it. It's all led out for you. All you need is plotz and a bit of imagination

[Edit]: I guess I better include an example. Here's some stuff I was doing that's moderately related to the game I'll be using this engine to make:

 

[Zenene]

That's so cool!

 

[The G-Meister]

This amuses me. If you turn on wrapping text and resize the window correctly, the code also displays a stretched version in notepad xD



Code's here if anyone wants it.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              ++++++++                                                                                      +++-----+++                                                                                            ---++                                                                                 ++++++++++   -+                                                                             +++++++++++++++++                                                                            +++++++    +++++++++++         --------------------                                                +   ++++    ++++++++        IDFK Some random hoe                                          +++++ +++++++++++   +++++        --------------------                                         ++++++ +++++++++++++++ +++++                                                                   +++++++ ++++++++++++++++ ++++       by The G-Meister                                           +++++++- +++++++++++++++++ ++++                                                                 +++++++- ++++++++++++++++++ +++                                                                +++++++-- ++++++++++++++++++ +++                                                                +++++---- ++++------+++++++++ +++                                                               ++++------ +---------++++++++ +++                                                               ++++---GGGG------------++++++- ++                                                              ++++---GGGGGGGGGGGGGG----+++++- ++                                                              ++++-GG     GGG       G--+++++- ++                                                              +++--   GGGGGGGGGGGG    --++++-- +                                                              +++-  GGMMMMMMMMMMMMGGG   ++++-- +                                                              +++-GGMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMGG-++++-- +                                                              +++- MM***MMMMMMMM***MMMGG++++-- +                                                              +++-M      MMMMM       M G++++-- +                                                              +++- M;MM ; MMM  MM ;;  MG++++--                                                                 ++-MM;;M ;MMMMM;M; ;;;M G++++--                                                                 ++-MM;;; ;MMMMM;;; ;;;MMG++++--                                                                 ++-MM;oo oMMMMMo;o o;oMMG++++--                                                                 ++-MMMoo oMMMMMooo ooMMMG+++---                                                                 ++-GMMoooMMGMMMMoooooMMMG+++---                                                                  +-GMMMooMMGMMMMooooMMMMG+++--                                                                   +-GMMMMMMGGGMMMMMMMMMMMG++---                                                                   ++-GMMMMG GGMMMMMMMMMMG+++---                                                                   ++-GMMMMMG  GMMMMMMMMMG+++--                                                                     +--GMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMG++---                                                                     ++-GMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMG++-- +                                                                     ++ GMMMMMMMMM*MMMMMG++-- ++                                                                      + GMMMM     MMMMMMG+--  -+                                                                         GMMMMMMMMMMMMMGG--  --+                                                                          GMMMMMMMMMMMGGGG.  --++                                                                         GMMMMMMMMMMMGGG G    -+                                                                          GMMMMMMMMGGGG GG     -                                                                         G GMMMMMMGGG  GGM                                                                              GGG  GMMMGG  GGGMM                                                                              GMGGG      GGGGMMG -                                                                       --- GGMMGGGGGGGGGGGMMMGG --                                                                  ---++++ GGMMMGGGGGGGMMMMMG +++---                                                             --++++++++ GGMMMMMMMMMMMMMGG ++++++-                                                           -+++++++++++ GGMMMMMMMMMMMGG ++++++++--                                                        -+++++++++++++ GGMMMMMMMMMGG +++++++++++-                                                      -+++++++++++++++ GGGMMMMMGGG +++++++++++++-                                                     -++++++++++++++++  GGGGGGG  ++++++++++++++-                                                    -+++++++++++++++++++ GGGG  +++++++++++++++++-

 

[MrChocodemon]

The left one looks like the standard M$ Word spacing xD.
In M$ Word the space each character takes isn't a square, but a vertical rectangle.

 

[The G-Meister]

Thought I'd pop a quick update in. Finally learnt enough Java to get a sort-of coherent window together! Now all I've got to do is bung in all the functions I made in the web demo, then I can finally get onto some game-worthy stuff. It's already running much faster and looks better as well, seen as I managed to compress the spacing. Here's what it looks like.

Oh yes, I've also settled on a name - Mainframe. Seen as the game is loosely based around hacking I think that's moderately appropriate. Thoughts? I've tried a logo as well, I'll pop that underneath.

 

[The G-Meister]

I'm coming around to naming the base colour scheme without actually knowing what it's from. BIOSs tend to be blue with white text or grey with blue text, and a cathode ray oscilloscope is green with a brighter green trace. Anyone have any good names or comparisons for it?

[Edit]: aha! It looks exactly like my digital alarm clock. However, not everyone knows what my alarm clock looks like, so any better comparisons are still welcome

 

[Teddy]

Mainframe sounds like a good name to me! If the purpose of the color scheme name is to show it in the game... perhaps you could just call it "Mainframe" as well?

I'm curious to see how the game itself will end up!

Also, matrix Halloweed is best Halloweed! It's pretty cool how noticeable the shading is

 

[res7less]

I guess Matrix is taken

How about "darknet"? Or, if it's all about hacking, something nerdy leetspeaky with symbols (although imho it's kind of stale). $Basic or TheC0re or R4d4R (which is backwards also radar ) - you know, those submarine radars.

Here's another one: !Rainbow You know... because exclamation mark is a NOT in programming.

 

[The G-Meister]

Funnily enough, my mum used to do "mainframe programming" back in the day (about 30 years ago). Purely by coincidence, the colour scheme IBM mainframes used just happened to be very similar to this. So actually calling the colour scheme "Mainframe" is very fitting

The current place I'm putting the name is simply as a constant in the code, but to improve readability for myself I'd like to use the same names in the code as I will in the game.

As for the shading, I was rather surprised it would be that noticeable. The one drawback I've found is that it's hard to create dark shades, as it's quite a jump from nothing to just a full stop, but then it's very hard to tell the difference in shade between an H and an M. It's also a challenge to make small text and large text both readable when sat at a certain away from the screen.

I wouldn't be opposed to dropping in the occasional programming reference, but I severely dislike replacing letters with numbers and symbols, just out of preference. My friend and I always pronounce the numbers as words to take the mick out of it, so we'd pronounce "h4cking" as "hufourking" and "R4d4R" as "rufourdifour"